Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
Independence Day Quotes
Despite the name, this is not a page about the American Fourth of July. It is built from the freedom and patriotism pages, and the writers who turn up come from all over: the Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos, the Italian anarchist Bruno Filippi, Shakespeare, Anna Quindlen. De Burgos has a line about an invaded nation where today’s battlefield is independence.
A few entries are there because of a keyword, not a mood. Cervantes’s remark about not thrusting his nose into other men’s porridge (Don Quixote, 1605) is about minding your own business. If you want something for a speech, sort by source grade and skip the oddities.
Most quoted on independence day:
Even love, the beloved Republic, that feeds upon freedom and lives.
Yes, we have more problems. But also more solutions, more opportunities and more freedom.
No wonder scoundrels find refuge in patriotism; it offers them immunity from criticism.
As soon as laws are necessary for men, they are no longer fit for freedom.
None of those who paid the price for our freedom should be forgotten.
The name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom.
What was the good working for freedom all your life and ending up without any freedom at all?
Freedom, like peace, can be made secure only as it is made universal.
Clearly when the liberties are left unrestricted they collide with one another.
Only a few prefer liberty, the majority seek nothing more than fair masters.